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The Supreme Court Of Canada And The General Anti-Avoidance Rule: Canada Trustco And Mathew, David G. Duff

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On October 19, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada released the first decisions in which it considered the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) in Sec. 245 of the federal Income Tax Act (ITA). Effective for transactions entered into on or after September 13, 1988, this rule was enacted as a deliberate response to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Stubart Investments Ltd. v. The Queen and was intended to reduce what the Court had described as "the action and reaction endlessly produced by complex, specific tax measures aimed at sophisticated business practices, and the inevitable, professionally guided and equally specialized …